Nick Mallett’s verdict on Eben Etzebeth’s eye-gouge as Sharks should consider financial ‘ramifications’ for Springboks lock

Nick Mallett has raised concerns about the financial ramifications for Springboks star Eben Etzebeth after he was red-carded for eye-gouging against Wales on Saturday.

The Boks finished their Autumn Nations Series campaign in emphatic fashion when they cruised to a 73-0 triumph over Wales at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

Etzebeth came on as a second half replacement and was in the thick of the action as he scored one of South Africa’s  11 tries in that encounter.

However, the match ended on a sour note when the 34-year-old received his marching orders from French referee Luc Ramos. This was after the match official looked at television replays which revealed Etzebeth’s eye-gouge on Wales flanker Alex Mann during a scuffle between the duo.

Mallet, who coached the Boks from 1997 to 2000, feels Etzebeth has no excuse for his actions and expects him to receive a lengthy suspension for his indiscretion.

“It was a real pity for the game to end on that note,” he told the talking boks podcast with Brenden Nel. “We thoroughly dominated the game and Eben, there must have been something said (to him).

“He was just pushing in the guy’s head and his hands flipped around and the thumb went into his eye, it looks like.

“I can tell you as an ex-coach, I had a player, (Mauro) Bergamasco from Italy, who was playing on the flank, and we had a driving maul going and one of their guys was trying to get over the top the driving maul and he didn’t even look at him.

“He just turned around with the back of his hand. He was trying to push the guy backwards, and his hand went across the face of the player, and his finger must have touched the eye, but there was no deliberate action.

“He wasn’t even looking at the guy, and he got 13 games because they take it so seriously. Anything, anywhere near a person’s eye is, if I’m not mistaken, it starts at 24 matches or something like that, and then you can work down from there. That’s a whole season, almost.

“I’m not sure what’s going to happen because the video evidence was pretty clear. You can argue about low tackles and all that sort of thing, and change of heights and mitigation, but in this one, there was a lot of anger on his face, and I can’t see a disciplinary hearing letting him off gently on this one.”

Etzebeth plies his trade as a club player with the sharks and seasoned rugby journalist Gavin Rich revealed that he has it on good authority that the Durban-based outfit’s owner Marco Masotti is extremely unhappy over the incident, as the Bok lock is set for a lengthy stint on the sidelines.

The worst thing that could have happened was that something like that did happen, and I heard from two different sources that, I haven’t actually spoken to Marco myself, but Marco Masotti was absolutely furious because Eben Etzebeth gets paid a lot of money and he doesn’t play very much for the Sharks. Now there’s a chance they won’t see him again this season,” said Rich.

“I mean, there’s a real possibility that that’s how long he’s going to be suspended for, so I can quite understand why the Sharks would be livid about that. To me, it was a meaningless game, so it’s just really such a pity that something like that did happen.”

Mallett agreed and said although Etzebeth is expected to fulfil his duties as the Bok enforcer, he should have known better and will have to accept the consequences.

“Unfortunately, if you play lock for an international side like South Africa, we’ve produced them all along, your Frik du Preezs, right through to Bakkies Botha, to Eben Etzebeth, hard guys who don’t take a backward step,” he said.

“And it’s very hard. People start saying, ‘But there was mitigating circumstances, he was abused or he said something about his family or that he got a little slap’.

“You really do know that if you do certain things, like punch a guy in the face or kick him on the ground, and players know that if you put your hand in a bloke’s face and your fingers go close to his eye, you are really risking a long ban.

And so it does seem to be so unnecessary that at the end of the game, I can understand him getting angry and wanting to threaten the player. I can understand that because you can’t go from what is essentially a boxing ring into a sort of debating society. It doesn’t work like that. Your anger overflows. But you have to take the consequences.”

Mallett then mentioned the possible financial implications of Etzebeth’s misdemeanour and asked whether the Sharks could also punish the player financially if he is going to be inactive for a lengthy period.

“I’m wondering, if doing something on the field that gets you a long ban, if the owner of the Sharks can’t look at taking money out of his contract saying: ‘You’re not playing 10 games, we can’t pay you for the time you’re (not) playing, you should be playing for us in these 10 games’,” he explained.

“It’s one thing getting injured, because that’s not your fault. But something like this, it would have quite an effect on player behaviour, if they were going to be hit in the pocket, as well as getting banned from the field.

“It’s something perhaps that needs to be looked at in the professional era. It’s like, unfortunately, the Jan-Hendrik Wessels one. Even though people couldn’t actually see the evidence, I have a feeling that Jan-Hendrik was guilty there.

“And, if he was guilty, he personally has lost quite a bit of money from not going on the Springbok tour. I mean, it’s in the region of one and a half million rand he has missed.

“So, what are the ramifications if someone like Eben doesn’t play for the next six months for the Sharks? They probably pay the majority of his contract.”